Regarding this paragraph in section 5. "Reduce Legal Liability"
"Furthermore, an increasing number of industry organizations in various
countries are developing accessibility codes of practice or industry
policies. If your organization or company is a member of such an
organization its continuing membership may depend on adopting those practices."
Andrew asks "SHOULD THIS BE MOVED TO SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (within the
workplace?) OR EVEN TO EFFICIENCY?"
My sense is that, it if it belongs at all, it does belong in Section
5. However I agree that it doesn't seem to jibe with the title or other
content of the section. Section 5 is intended to inform people that they
may be subject to "compliance because of imposed authority" and that
complying will reduce their exposure to legal or other types of official
censure. (Somewhere in the planning or policy suites we tell people to
check whether any local laws, policies etc. apply to them.)
The paragraph in question sticks out because it is like the third example
in a list that is missing the first two examples, for instance:
* For a United States federal government Web site, compliance is the law.
* For a Canadian federal government Web site, compliance is the policy.
* For the site of a member of the Left-handed Widget Industry Association
<grin> compliance is a condition of membership.
A (possible) problem with the latter example is provability: is anyone
actually aware of any non-governmental organization that requires its
members to comply? If we can prove it to be true, it would be good to have
a link in the "reference for benefits" document under development. If we
can't prove it, maybe the paragraph should just be removed.
In any case, a small change that would make the first sentence of the first
paragraph more universal would be :
"In many countries around the world discrimination laws [and/or policies]
require governments, educational institutes, corporations and businesses to
provide equal opportunities for people with disabilities."
The third sentence would read better as:
"The [requirements] vary from country to country and a listing of country
specific laws and policies is maintained by WAI."
Regards,
Chuck